Hi Guys,

I was kind of busy for the past week and therefore I could not blog. There is another strong reason for me to abstain from writing. There is no interesting and constructive news happening in our surrounding. Writing the same negative trends observed in our society seems to me a very boring and monotonous job even though it accounts for 100 % truth. So I took some time off and thought about the most entertaining and engrossing thing that most of us enjoy. Yes you guessed it right. Its about movies. Today my post is dedicated to one of my most favorite movies.
The movie is Swades. Swades is a 2004 Indian film which was written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. Everything about the movie was perfect. The cast led by Sharukh khan and Gayathri Joshi, lyrics by Javed Akhtar, music by the maestro A.R. Rehman and costume designed by Oscar winner Bhanu Athaiya. Before I go deeper I want to clarify that this post is not dedicated to the movie but to the inspiration behind it.
Swades is inspired by the story of Aravinda Pillarmarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, the NRI couple who returned to India from US giving up their careers, and developed the pedal power generator to light remote and off the grid village schools. Ravi graduated with a Phd in particle physics from University of Maryland and is the founder member of AID (Association of Indias Development). Aravinda has double Masters in Library science and in South Asian studies from University of Boston and Wisconsin respectively. Both, very passionate and selfless people moved to India in 1998 to carry out the task they envisioned. There are many projects that AID either took up or cordinated with other groups. I will highlight about one such project ie generating power and giving light to Bilagaon village.
Bilagaon is a tribal village in the Satpuda with a population of over 200 households. There is a boarding school with a strength of 300 children for all the neighboring villages. These villages had never had electricity till 2002. The nearest point of national grid was about 12 km away.
Bilagaon has a 9 mt waterfall on river Udai . The people of the village formed a commitee and decided to tap the energy of the waterfall through a micro hydel system and use that energy to light the entire village. Inspired by NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan) the people of the village did 2000 human days of shramdan (voluntary service) to construct a canal, check dam, Forebay tank, pipeline and a powerhouse. The project was designed by engineers from Peoples School of Energy and implemented by Sarvodaya friendship center with support from AID. The idea was that the small check dam 2 mt on top of the waterfall could divert a small part of water through the canal into the Forebay tank adjacent to the falls. From here the waters fall through the pipeline on to a turbine situated in a powerhouse at the foot of the hills. The pipeline was constructed by volunteers from Dhule and the turbine was made by a professor at IISc. The falling water turns the turbine which in turn rotates the generator and produces 15 KW of electricity to not only light up every house in Bilagaon but also the school. The project was completed in 2003.
A great human accomplishment. An achievement which a Government could not offer to its citizens for 55 years. A tale of inspired individuals who wanted lesser fortunate people to enjoy the minimum comforts that all of us have in plenty to waste. There are so many Aravindas and Ravis who are committed to serve the people. They are all doing a wonderful job and are our role models. Deep within us, somewhere there is a certain Ravi and Aravinda hidden in us. We need to bring them out and that can be done only by inquiring within. Each of us have to question ourselves sincerely and we will know the answer for sure.

Signing off for now,
Krishna